China’s $300 billion sovereign-wealth fund is eyeing big investments in distressed U.S. real estate, according to people familiar with the matter. To finance some of the deals, China may rely on an old trading partner: the U.S. government.
In recent weeks, officials from China Investment Corp. have held talks with U.S. private-equity fund managers, including BlackRock [...]

WASHINGTON – Nov. 4, 2008 – With an unstable American economy and slowdowns in the housing market, most consumers are open to the federal government taking a more active role in overseeing mortgage and lending practices, according to the 2008 National Housing Pulse Survey, an annual survey released today by the National Association of Realtors.
The [...]

As the dismal U.S. housing market slides further downhill–home prices in July posted a 16.3% annual drop–some sellers are unloading their homes to bargain-hunters.
But in cities like Seattle, Jacksonville, Fla., and St. Louis–the hardest major cities in which to sell a home–even sellers who have substantially lowered their prices aren’t finding it easy to move [...]

Long vacant, the former Buffalo Forge property along the eastern edge of downtown Buffalo is poised to find new life.
The Buffalo Urban Development Corp.’s directors Tuesday unanimously agreed to purchase from Howden Fan the 12.5-acre parcel that cuts along Broadway and on to such side streets as Mortimer Street and Spring Street. The BUDC directors [...]

Asante’s homebuyers program refunds up to 66% of the buyer’s agent’s commission empowering buyers to find their home, either online or through open houses. For a $600,000 home, the buyer gets up to $12,000 back upon the close of escrow. Asante’s full-service at a fair price value proposition makes a huge financial difference for home [...]

Immobel, a technology company that expertly translates online real estate listings into thirteen languages, today announced the launch of the International IDX Alliance, an online exchange for real estate professionals worldwide to share and market each others’ properties. The Alliance — which seizes opportunities presented by an increasingly global real estate market fueled by the [...]

As the credit crunch, soaring food and oil prices and other economic problems continue to hobble the sale of homes throughout Europe, real estate agents are being forced to rethink how they can push sales through.
Even though house prices across Europe, especially in Britain, Spain and Ireland, are continuing to fall, borrowing costs are spiraling [...]